


How to Shop With a Bookworm

by Rannchan



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 17:34:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19430788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rannchan/pseuds/Rannchan
Summary: HOW TO BOOK SHOP WITH A BOOKWORM:• enter store• keep eyes on your bookworm at all times• wow ok you lost them• They’re gone forever now





	How to Shop With a Bookworm

**Author's Note:**

> The summary of this story is the tweet that inspired me to write it. A one-shot fluff piece for my favorite couple.

Gajeel Redfox didn’t know where she had gone. He had only looked at the nearby bookshelf for a moment.

“Lilly! Did you see where the Shrimp went?!” Gajeel barked out to the black Exceed nearby.

Panther Lilly looked around, “No… I thought you were keeping an eye on her?” 

“Tch…. They’re gonna kill me if I don’t find her…” Gajeel’s eyebrows knitted in frustration. Looking down at Panther Lilly, Gajeel said, “Hey, you check upstairs, I’ll check down here.”

Lilly nodded, “Right.” Bringing out his wings, Lilly made a quick trip to the upper floor of the massive book shop.

Turning his head back to the shelves surrounding himself, Gajeel thought about how this had happened…

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

“Why in the hell would you pick this mission?!” Gajeel was brandishing a flyer at Panther Lilly angrily. 

“Maybe I thought you could use a bit of an easy one.” Lilly shrugged at Gajeel before looking at him with a mischievous grin, “Or maybe I wanted to give you an excuse to talk to a certain blue haired mage…”

Gajeel took a swipe at the grinning Exceed, who deftly flew a foot higher than Gajeel’s fist. 

Looking around the guild for only a moment, Lilly gave another grin to Gajeel before flying over the tables towards Levy McGarden.

Gajeel growled, and looked back at the job flyer Lilly had given him.

\------------------  
BOOKS NEEDED

One, Kairi Heatherfield, requests help in locating the following books.

-“Toeing the Line, the Biography of Nena Liefeld”  
-“Dragons and Those Who Love Them”  
-“The Genealogy of the Heatherfield Family”  
-“Erotic Uses for Rune Magic”  
-“The Complete History of Fioran Festivals and Holidays”

Complete discretion is requested in regards to the book list. Please acquire all the books on the list and bring them to Ms. Heatherfield at the following address.   
\------------------

Below that was the address of the client and the information on the reward. It wasn’t a particularly large reward, but seemed to be paying fairly well for how easy the task seemed to be. 

Gajeel looked up from the flier and over to where Panther Lilly was sitting in Levy McGarden’s lap, getting some very gentle head scritches. Gajeel let out a low growl as he scowled at Lilly. 

Grumbling to himself, Gajeel headed out the guildhall. “I can’t believe the furball is trying to play matchmaker again… I can finish this job by myself…”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

“DAMMIT!”

The girl who was behind the counter cowered under the towering form of Gajeel. She was terrified of this scary looking man, who was yelling in her small book shop.

“I…I…I’m s…sorry…. sir….” She was stuttering in fear.

Gajeel looked down at the shopkeeper and grumbled a quick, “Sorry for yelling…”

Still looking a bit angry, Gajeel left the shop. The shopkeeper let out a sigh of relief when he was out of sight.

“I can’t believe not a single one of the bookshops in Magnolia had even one of the books on the list….” Gajeel was headed back to the guildhall in an angry huff. As he walked back, Panther Lilly’s smug face popped into Gajeel’s head. ‘He’s going to be impossible….’ 

Entering the guildhall, Gajeel walked right to where Levy was sitting. Panther Lilly had apparently gone elsewhere, so she was almost alone. Levy was reading a book with Jet and Droy sitting nearby. They occasionally tried to pull her attention from her book, but seemed very unsuccessful at it. As Gajeel approached the group, Jet and Droy frowned at him, not appreciating the man who had once hung them from a tree….

Ignoring the rest of Team Shadowgear, Gajeel stood in front of Levy and spoke in a clear voice, “Hey Shrimp, I need your help with a job.”

Levy continued to read her book, not noticing anything around her.

“Hey, can’t you see she’s reading? Buzz off.” Jet was angrily trying to ward Gajeel away from Levy.

“Yeah, she doesn’t want to help you.” Droy ate a chip from the bag he was holding as he too, tried to ward off the iron dragonslayer. 

Without even looking at the pair, Gajeel growled threateningly, “She doesn’t seem to want you two interrupting her book either, but that never seems to stop you. I need her help, so scram!”

For a moment, it appeared as if Jet and Droy were going to start a proper fight with Gajeel when all of a sudden, Levy shut her book and looked around at all three men.

“Gajeel, can you not threaten my teammates?” Jet and Droy looked at Gajeel smugly until Levy looked directly at them, “And you two, could you guys stop trying to get my attention with unimportant small talk while I’m reading?” They looked a little guilty and shuffled their feet. Levy continued, “And guys? Could you try and be nicer to Gajeel? If he says he needs my help, I’m going to help him. Fairy Tail is always about helping each other!”

Both Jet and Droy appeared to open their mouths in protest, but never got anything out before they saw the look on Gajeel’s face. Scowling, they both just hovered behind Levy in silence. 

Levy turned to Gajeel with a smile on her face. “What did you need help with?”

Gajeel was frozen in place for only a moment as the view of her smile took over all his thoughts. Shaking his head, Gajeel brought out the flier. “Lilly took this job for us and I can’t seem to find any of these books. I’ve already been to every book store in Magnolia.”

Levy took the flier from Gajeel and looked at the short booklist very carefully. Her cheeks seemed to redden slightly at a few of the titles, but she quickly looked up at Gajeel. “This is… an eclectic list of books… Low prints and hard to find. Not impossible though… I only know one shop worth checking for these.” She passed the flier back to Gajeel.

“Oh yeah? Which shop?” 

“Well… It’s called ‘The Dragon’s Horde’ and it’s about 3 hours away by train.” Levy was thinking hard to remember the details.

Gajeel raised an eyebrow, “The Dragon’s Horde?”

Levy nodded. “Yeah, it’s a massive book shop. I love going but it’s so far I don’t usually have an excuse to go. You’re going to need my help finding these books in there.” 

Gajeel noticed that Levy seemed to be fighting a giant smile. “I suppose you could come with Lilly and me. It’s late enough that we should leave in the morning though…” Gajeel’s face fell for a moment, “and maybe I can find Wendy before we leave…”

Levy nodded. “I’ll meet you back here at the guildhall at 6? We’ll head to the train station when you’ve found Wendy.” Levy got up from the table she was sitting at and grabbed her bag. “I’ll see you in the morning!” Levy then headed out of the guildhall. 

Gajeel was watching her leave when Jet and Droy were suddenly very close to him.

“Hey, back off! What’s your deals?” Gajeel was uncomfortable with the closeness of the two male wizards.

“You’re taking Levy to The Dragon’s Horde.” Droy’s voice was very serious.

“Yeah, what of it?” Gajeel was answering in annoyance. 

“You have to watch her.” Jet had crossed his arms.

Gajeel looked briefly offended. “What, you think I’ll let her get hurt in a book store?”

Jet’s face was extremely serious and he got close to Gajeel’s face. “It’s not that. You have to keep your eyes on her… AT ALL TIMES.”

“If you lose her… you’ll have to deal with us!” Droy was trying very hard to be threatening, but was failing with all the crumbs falling off of his shirt.

Gajeel got up from the table he had just been sharing with Levy and backed up from Jet and Droy. “It’s just a trip to a book store. I can watch over Shorty just fine. Plus, your little threats don’t mean much. It’s not like you two could take me anyway.” Gajeel gave a smirk and turned to leave the guildhall. 

As Gajeel reached the door, Jet yelled loudly, “I’m serious! AT ALL TIMES!”

Gajeel gave a small wave behind him without looking and headed home to get some rest before morning. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, Gajeel was extremely grumpy. 

Panther Lilly had been insufferable when he found out they were meeting Levy in the morning. His favorite pastime was to tease Gajeel for his crush on the blue haired mage. Well, that and eating Kiwis…

Not only did Gajeel have a very annoying evening, he found out that Wendy had just left on a job with Team Natsu! 

While waiting for Levy at the guild, Gajeel was mumbling about “That damn Salamander”. 

A few minutes before 6, Levy arrived at the guildhall carrying a bag over her shoulder that was nearly half her size. 

Panther Lilly spotted her first, “Good Morning Levy! What’s with the bag?”

Hearing Lilly great their partner for the day, Gajeel turned his head to Levy and starred right at the large bag she had thrown over her shoulder. 

Levy smiled brightly as she adjusted the bag on her shoulder. “I need something to carry the books back, don’t I?”

“There’s no way a couple of books are that large!” Gajeel seemed incredulous at the size of her bag.

Panther Lilly gave a light jab to Gajeel’s shoulder and Levy giggled. “Of course they’re not that big. But if I’m going to The Dragon’s Horde… I may as well pick up a few things for myself, right?” Levy was normally a pretty bright and cheery person… but the brightness and cheer that was emanating off of the Solid Script mage currently was blinding.

Gajeel had a strange feeling when he heard the tone in her voice. For a moment his thoughts went back to Jet’s warning. ‘What have I gotten myself into?’

Without waiting for her shopping partners to respond, Levy turned back to the guildhall door. “Alright, we’re all here, so let’s get going!” She was excitedly pointing to the exit and started walking without even checking to see if they were following her. 

Panther Lilly started flying after her when Gajeel stopped him. “Hey Lilly… I think I’m gonna need your help on more than just finding these books.”

Lilly cocked his head to the side. “What’s up? Do you need me to give you guys some alone time in the book store?”

Gajeel glared at his exceed friend who was grinning. Ignoring the comment Gajeel looked in the direction Levy had gone and a serious look crossed his face. “I’m gonna need your help keeping an eye on Levy.”

Panther Lilly let out a laugh, “You need help doing what? We’re just going to a bookstore, not a bandit raid! I think Levy knows how to watch after herself.”

“I just have a feeling… that we may lose her? Fairy Tail loves the shrimp and if I don’t bring her back there’s no telling what they may do to me.” Gajeel rose from his seat and Lilly followed. She hadn’t stopped walking for even a moment for them, so Gajeel had to follow her scent to the train station. 

Levy was sitting on a bench, but couldn’t seem to sit still. Her legs were lightly bouncing in her seat and she kept playing with the straps on her enormous bag. 

As Gajeel and Panther Lilly approached her, Lilly whispered to Gajeel, “You know… now that you mention it, something does seem a little off…”

Gajeel nodded and sat down next to an oblivious Levy.

She didn’t notice either of them and continued to fidget, occasionally glancing at the nearby clock.

“Hey shrimp…”

“Aah! I didn’t see you there Gajeel.” Levy seemed to stop fidgeting as she spoke to Gajeel, but started right back up again as she turned back to the clock. “I already got our tickets, the train leaves at 6:30. Did you manage to find Wendy this morning?”

Gajeel shook his head, “No, she left with the salamander and bunny girl last night. I just missed her.”

Levy was making distracted noises at Gajeel at he spoke. “Uh-huh…. Yeah… that’s great…”

Lilly and Gajeel shared a glance and Lilly hopped onto the bench next to Levy. “Hey Levy, are you okay? You don’t seem quite like yourself…”

Before Lilly or Gajeel could say anything else, Levy popped up onto her feet. The train was pulling into the station, and she was bouncing on her feet waiting for it to open its doors. 

Glancing at each other in what could only be described as a mixture of worry and fear, Gajeel and Lilly followed Levy. 

After many minutes of Levy arguing with someone about how she should be let on the train right now, as opposed to waiting for all the other passengers to get off first, they were all aboard the train. 

Gajeel was already starting to look a little green despite the train not moving yet. Levy pulled a book out of her bag and started reading it, and Lilly sat next to Levy, intending to get some rest during the three hour train ride. 

Gajeel was watching Levy fidget. The train was still letting passengers on and despite having her face buried in a book, Levy’s legs still had a slight bounce to them. 

“Can ya calm down shrimp? You’re not normally this… fidgety…” Gajeel seemed quite annoyed at the small mage’s continued movement. 

Levy ignored Gajeel and kept bouncing away. After a few more minutes, the train seemed to lurch forward and started to slowly leave the gate.

Gajeel doubled over and leaned on the window he happened to be sitting by. Before shutting his eyes in protest of his stomach, he noticed that Levy’s fidgeting had finally stopped…

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

The rest of the train ride went as uneventfully as the trio could have hoped for. Levy had finished her book, Panther Lilly had gotten some extra sleep, and Gajeel hadn’t puked on anyone. 

As the train slowed down, Levy’s fidgeting had started up again. Unfortunately, since now Gajeel was feeling quite ill, it only exacerbated his motion sickness. When the train came to a complete stop, Levy grabbed her bag and shot up, ready to leave the train. She almost made it off before hearing the loud, authoritative voice of Panther Lilly.

“LEVY! You need to come help me get Gajeel off the train!”

Panther Lilly had transformed into his battle form and was trying to balance Gajeel over one of his shoulders. His sudden change in appearance had gathered a few stares and whispers, but Lilly didn’t care about that. 

Levy had paused and looked back at her struggling teammates. Looking back at the door to the train she hesitated for a moment, but ultimately turned back and tried to help steady Gajeel’s other shoulder. Working together, Lilly and Levy managed to get the motion sick dragonslayer off of the train. 

Sitting Gajeel down on a bench, Lilly regained his smaller form and Levy fidgeted with the strap to her bag, looking in the direction of the town they were in. 

Lilly kept an eye on her while Gajeel regained his composure. It only took a moment before Gajeel was back on his feet and ready to go. Levy brightened and turned to lead the way. 

Keeping a few steps behind her, Gajeel and Panther Lilly whispered to each other.

“I think you were right Gajeel… I think we have to keep an extra close eye on Levy…”

Gajeel nodded with a small grunt. “I don’t want to spend all day there…”

Panther Lilly slipped him a sly grin, “I bet I know where you’d like to spend all day…” He raised his eyebrows.

Gajeel glared at his exceed friend and told him to, “Shut up!”

After about 15 minutes of walking at a brisk pace, a very large two story building came into view. There was a large wooden dragon carved above a sign that read, ‘The Dragon’s Horde’ and had a few books carved into the sign as well. 

As the trio approached the store, Levy’s pace was quickening. Glancing only briefly at each other, Lilly and Gajeel quickened their pace to keep up with and not lose, Levy. 

As they reached the front door, Levy paused, and her two companions pulled up behind her. They seemed a little more tired than normal, but were generally doing fine as they were highly trained fighters. 

The two men looked at Levy confused. Lilly spoke up first, “I thought you were excited to get here? Why aren’t you going in?”

“Yeah, you practically ran here from the train station. Why stop now?” Gajeel had folded his arms and sounded a little agitated. 

Levy was looking at the bookstore with awe. Her eyes wide to bring in every sight, breathing deeply to smell and taste every last inch of the entryway. “I just need to compose myself for a moment… that’s all.” Levy reached up and combed her fingers through her hair for a moment. Turning to look at Gajeel she asked, “Do I look okay?”

Not expecting that question from anyone, much less the girl he liked… Gajeel blushed slightly and stammered out, “Wha...? I mean… yeah… you look fine shorty…” He was having trouble looking her in the eyes, but tried his hardest to remain looking at her, lest she decide to enter the bookstore while he looked away. 

Lilly just face-palmed at Gajeel’s answer. 

Levy smiled and gave a little nod. Turning back to the front of the shop, she opened the door and the three of them walked inside. 

Once inside, Levy was greeted by an older looking gentleman, who seemed to recognize her. He was smiling a mile wide for the small mage, though he seemed to be a little more apprehensive about her current traveling companions. 

“Miss McGarden! My dear girl, you haven’t been ‘round here in ages. Err… what happened to those two nice boys you usually bring with you? You know I always fancied you and the skinny one as a couple.” The old man had clasped Levy’s hands and she smiled back until the last thing he said, where she pulled back a little and responded a little uncomfortably.

“Heh… I tell you every time Mr. Runnels… Jet is not my boyfriend, and neither is Droy! They’re just my teammates.”

With a slight smile, Mr. Runnels gave a small wink to Levy, “And this tall gentleman?”

Levy’s face turned beet red, “NO! I mean… I’m not dating Gajeel either! We’re just here to pick up some books for a job! Honest!” 

Mr. Runnels looked over to Gajeel, who had not taken his eyes off of Levy since the moment they had walked in the door. He looked back at Levy and gave a sly grin. “If you say so miss… if you say so… Can I help you find anything today?”

Gajeel started to say, “Yeah, could you…” but was quickly cut off by Levy.

“No thank you Mr. Runnels! I should be able to manage on my own.” 

Gajeel scowled, but continued to watch Levy as she started walking into the main room of the massive bookstore. 

Lilly had been staring at all the books since they had walked in, and was quickly reminded by Gajeel’s foot, that they needed to keep an eye on Levy, and they needed to keep moving if she was. Lilly scowled at Gajeel for kicking him, but reluctantly followed the pair.

Gajeel was watching Levy closely, but was surprised by the calmness she seemed to be exhibiting. They were leisurely walking through shelves of books, Levy looking at the spines as they walked past. This continued for quite a while. Levy quietly looking at rows of books, with Gajeel and Panther Lilly following behind and keeping a close eye on her. Occasionally, she would pause at a shelf, grab a book and hand it wordlessly to Gajeel. 

After being handed a fifth book, Gajeel looked at what he had been handed. “Hey! This isn’t on the list!”

Levy just handed Gajeel another book and responded without even looking at him. “Don’t worry! We’ll get them… I just needed to pick up a few things while we’re here…”

Gajeel grunted in annoyance. 

Panther Lilly was getting bored of watching Levy and started looking at shelves himself. He figured if this was all she was going to do, they were worrying for nothing.

Gajeel didn’t notice that he was alone in his mission to watch the bookworm, but had continued anyway with a scowl on his face.

After turning around another shelf, something caught Gajeel’s attention. He looked at the shelf and saw a few books on Dragon Biology. Seeing as how none of them where what he was looking for… he decided to keep with watching Levy…

Turning back, Gajeel’s eyes widened. 

“Lilly! Did you see where the Shrimp went?!” Gajeel barked out to the black Exceed nearby.

Panther Lilly looked around, “No… I thought you were keeping an eye on her?” 

“Tch…. They’re gonna kill me if I don’t find her…” Gajeel’s eyebrows knitted in frustration. Looking down at Panther Lilly, Gajeel said, “Hey, you check upstairs, I’ll check down here.”

Lilly nodded, “Right.” Bringing out his wings, Lilly made a quick trip to the upper floor of the massive book shop.

Growling low in his throat, Gajeel decided to drop the books he was carrying off at the front desk before looking for Levy further. She was practically a ninja in book stores… and her scent would be hard to follow… she smelled so much like the books that surrounded them.

As Gajeel dropped the books at the desk, Mr. Runnels spoke to him. “Oh ho! I see Miss McGarden is using all those muscles of yours to their full potential.” The old man waggled his eyebrows in a slightly suggestive manner. 

Gajeel just glared at the old man angrily. “Did you see where shorty got off to?”

Mr. Runnels shook his head. “I’m afraid I haven’t seen Miss McGarden since she entered the store with you sir.”

With an agitated huff, Gajeel re-entered the main section of the store and started to search for his quarry. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

No matter what they seemed to try, Gajeel and Panther Lilly where at a total loss. Neither could seem to find Levy anywhere, though they occasionally thought they found signs of her going through an area.

Both Gajeel and Panther Lilly were exhausted from their search and getting quite hungry… They had been at this book shop for hours now.

Taking a seat next to the stairs, Gajeel looked around with a very annoyed look on his face. Seeing that the stairs were wrought iron, he took a bite from them and just started chewing on the metal. At least he could satisfy his hunger while he rested.

Lilly saw what Gajeel just did and gasped at him, “Hey! You can’t do that!”

Swallowing his mouth full of metal, Gajeel snapped back, “Oh yeah? Who’s gonna stop me?”

Lilly took on his battle form, intending to fight Gajeel if necessary.

They both glared at each other, ready to fight in the middle of the book store when something seemed to hit Gajeel on the back of his shoulder.

“I’ll stop you if you don’t stop destroying the building!” Levy had just appeared behind Gajeel, calm as ever… with her bag full to the brim with books of all shapes and sizes. 

“I wasn’t destroying the building! And where have you been?!” Gajeel had turned to Levy and was letting his anger loose. 

Levy pointed to the bite in the staircase. “This is my favorite shop, and you took a bite out of the staircase! I was just shopping for books.”

Gajeel just scowled. “We’ve been here for hours. I got hungry.”

Panther Lilly had gone back to his smaller form while his friends argued. “I too am pretty hungry. Have you found all the books we were looking for?”  
Levy smiled and nodded at Panther Lilly. “They’re all here in my bag! We just have to pay for them and head home.”

“I’d like to get lunch before heading back, if you don’t mind.” 

Levy shook her head to Lilly. “That’s probably a bad idea, with Gajeel’s motion sickness. We can always catch a late dinner back in Magnolia.”

Gajeel just scowled at the thought of not eating a proper meal for at least another three hours. 

Putting on a bright smile, Levy adjusted the strap of her bag. “You guys ready to go?”

Grumbling, both Lilly and Gajeel followed the cheery Levy to the front of the store. Levy was walking at a fairly slow pace due to the weight of her bag. After watching her struggle for a little while, Gajeel rolled his eyes to no one in particular and grabbed the bag from Levy. He easily threw the bag over his shoulder.

Levy looked at Gajeel with a bit of surprise.

He just grunted and kept walking to the front. 

Levy smiled at him, a slight blush creeping up her face.

None of this went unnoticed by Lilly, who just smirked at his companions. They may both be denying it, but it was only a matter of time…

When Gajeel dropped the bag of books in front of the old Mr. Runnels, the old man didn’t seem surprised in the least. 

“I thought you would’ve gotten more than usual this time. With such a strong young man accompanying you…” 

Levy just chuckled, “No, my budget can only handle so much at a time. Plus, I already told you! This was a trip for work.”

Mr. Runnels laughed with Levy and started going through every book that had been brought to him. Slowly and deliberately, he would look at the book, check its price, write it down, and place it into a neat stack on the other side of his desk. Due to the large volume of books, this was taking much longer than Gajeel had the patience for. 

Gajeel started fidgeting impatiently. A faint grinding could be heard as he started gnashing his teeth. 

While Mr. Runnels continued to compile the costs of the books, Levy turned to Gajeel with a bright smile on her face. “Thank you Gajeel… for letting me help with your job. I really enjoyed myself.”

Gajeel stopped gnashing his teeth and looked at Levy with surprise. That smile melted his cold steel heart every time he saw it. Looking away, he responded, “You can thank Lilly. He chose the job.”

She didn’t thank Lilly, but continued to smile at Gajeel. This peaceful reverie was interrupted however, by Mr. Runnels.

“Miss McGarden dear, I believe two of these books are duplicates! Did you mean to get two copies of ‘Dragons and Those Who Love Them’ and ‘Erotic Uses for Rune Magic’?” Mr. Runnels was holding up two books as he asked. 

Levy’s face turned a deep red as she turned back and nearly shouted, “They’re for work! They were on the list for what we needed to pick up.”

Panther Lilly looked up at Levy in confusion. “I thought they only needed one of…” 

Levy let out a loud and awkward laugh to stop Lilly from finishing his sentence. “Oh, don’t be silly Lilly! You know how important the job is! Don’t want to lose anything and have to come back!” Levy sounded very unconvincing to Gajeel and Lilly, but Mr. Runnels seemed to just smile, nod and add the two books to the stack. 

Levy suddenly seemed very anxious to leave the book store, and was relieved when Mr. Runnels gave her the total. Quickly paying for her haul, she started to re-load her bag with the books that would fit. Mr. Runnels then packed the rest into a few smaller bags she could take home with her. 

Gajeel grabbed the largest bag, and Lilly grabbed the rest in his battle form. Lilly smiled at them both and waved to Mr. Runnels as they left. 

The trio walked back to the train station in silence, until Gajeel thought of something.

“Hey, the old man said you bought doubles of only two of the books. There were five on the job list. If ya just wanted to make sure we were safe in case something happened… why didn’t you get doubles of all of them?” Gajeel looked inquisitively at Levy, who began to blush once more.

“Well… Perhaps I just wanted to read them myself. They are rare books after all…” Levy was avoiding eye contact with Gajeel. 

He didn’t seem to think much more of it until Lilly chimed in, “And what were those books again? ‘Dragons and Those Who Love Them’ and ‘Erotic Uses for Rune Magic’? What might you need those particular books for, hmmm?” Lilly avoided the playful punch Levy had swung at him. His face smug as ever.

Gajeel however, looked like he was thinking about what his Exceed friend was implying. 

After a minute or two of Gajeel not reacting to what Lilly said, Levy let out a sigh in relief. She was sure he was just going to drop the subject. But only a moment later, Gajeel froze and his face turned as red as his eyes. 

Lilly just started laughing loudly as Levy realized what was happening and with her face turning just as red, she started running as fast as she could to the train station.

Lilly looked over to Gajeel and smirked, “I told you she was interested…” and proceeded to run after Levy, knowing that as embarrassed as she may be, they still all needed to catch the train back. 

Gajeel stood frozen in place, holding a very large bag of books. A million thoughts were running through his head. After a few minutes, Gajeel seemed to regain some composure and saw both of his traveling companions had left him. Starting to run to the train station behind them, Gajeel yelled out, “Hey! You can’t leave me here shrimp!”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

The train ride was awkward to say the least. Levy couldn’t look either of her traveling companions in the eyes, Gajeel was just concentrating on not vomiting while his brain still tried to parse what had happened, and Panther Lilly was just acting as smug as possible while eating a kiwi flavored candy another passenger had offered him.

“Well, I’m going to walk around for a bit. Now you two behave while I’m gone.” Lilly winked at the awkward mages as he left their booth. 

Gajeel was hunched over on his chair with his eyes closed. He was nauseous and confused… 

Levy was looking steadfastly out of the window at the rolling scenery. Having heard Lilly leave their booth, she would occasionally try to sneak a glance at her sick companion. 

About half-way through the train ride, Lilly still hadn’t returned to the booth. Gajeel still hadn’t opened his eyes or moved from his hunched over position, and Levy had given up looking out the window. She was now actively watching Gajeel with a small smile on her face. 

After a particularly strong lurch of the train, Gajeel opened his eyes and saw Levy staring at him while smiling. “Oi! What’re you smiling at?” He quickly shut his mouth and held his stomach as another wave of nausea overtook him. 

Levy’s cheeks turned pink. “I was just thinking…”

Gajeel let out a low grumble. “Thinking about what?”

Before answering, Levy got up and moved to the bench Gajeel was sitting on. She gently lifted his head, and sat right where his head was so that it was now resting in her lap. Gently stroking his wild mane of hair, Levy responded, “About how big strong Dragonslayers are always beaten by something as innocuous as a train.”

Gajeel was about to retort, when the train hit another bump and his head got buried deeper in her lap. Only then did he realize where he was. 

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, his nausea was keeping him from getting out of the blue haired mage’s lap. However… as she gently stroked his hair, Gajeel started to feel calmer. Her scent was invading his senses, and he could feel her pulse through her legs. He could get used to this…

After a few minutes, Gajeel was lulled to sleep and Levy smiled down at him, brushing her fingers through his hair for the rest of the train ride. She was just happy she could alleviate some of his pain from the train ride. 

A few booths away, Panther Lilly was peeking over a seat, watching Levy and Gajeel. When Levy put Gajeel’s head into her lap, Lilly smiled and sat down in the seat he had been borrowing. 

A kindly old woman smiled at the Exceed. “Did they finally get together like you wanted?”

Lilly smiled at the old woman, “I think they’re on the right path. Too fast and it’ll just scare them both.”

The woman nodded and reached into her bag. “Would you like another hard candy?”

Lilly nodded vigorously. “Are there any more Kiwi ones?”

The woman laughed and nodded. “I always buy the variety but my grandchildren hate the kiwi ones! I like them but can’t eat too many. You can have as many as you want.”

Lilly smiled and popped a candy into his mouth. This had been a very successful job, if he did say so himself.


End file.
